[Leica] Re: digital m

[brent pederson <bpederson@mindspring.com>]

I'm a portrait studio owner, I use a leica m4-2 for candid bw shots at
weddings, a rollei 6008 system for the color stuff, and a canon d30 for
studio business-type portraits.  My impressions of the digital debate
are this:

The reason for shooting with the digital is speed, immediate feedback
for the subject of the portrait session, and the fact that I can shoot
for free, essentially, so I can take as many poses as necessary to make
the subject happy.  Since, for these business uses, the results would be
scanned in the end anyway, for publication or web use, I may as well
start out digital and save alot of workflow.  

In terms of quality, when shooting with the d30 (and printing from a
fuji pictro 3000), I find the results to be the following:

When printing 5x7 or smaller, the d30 looks like it was shot with a 4x5
view camera.  Extremely smooth.

When printing 8x10, it looks like it was taken with medium format.

When printing 11x14, it looks like it was taken with a 35.

I have tested the Nikon and Fuji cameras and, while they are quite
sharp, they don't have nearly as nice rendition of skin tones as the
Canon.  It somehow looks the closest to film to me.  If you're not
shooting skin tones, you might never notice, though.  

I have not noticed any problem using normal canon lenses with the
digital setup, in fact, the smoothness of this camera's results seem to
emphasize the high quality of the lenses.  So, in the end, I think a
digital M would not be a bad idea at all, I'd take a serious look at it.
 I hate the idea of having to give up the M altogether, cause I do still
love it...


Brent Pederson